Precious Parts

The frequency with which the final costs of multibillion-dollar weapons
systems balloon far beyond original estimates is an all too familiar
Pentagon embarrassment. Air Force auditors think they have put a finger
on a related problem: the multiplying price of mundane spare parts.

At Oklahoma's Tinker Air Force Base, watchdogs programmed their
computers to detect increases of 300% or more in the cost of spare
parts for aircraft engines charged by the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft
Group of United Technologies in fiscal year 1982. The results, said an
auditor, were "staggering." Robert S. Hancock, an official...